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AP

“I hope he takes a real, hard look at running, but now’s not the time”

Unlike Obama, whose appearances are carefully choreographed to leave nothing to chance, each of Biden’s public events has an element of suspense. His supporters say his seeming inability to hide his true feelings about an issue speaks to an honesty and candor that are at the heart of his appeal. But White House officials have privately griped about the fallout and distractions when he struggles to stay on message in a highly politicized environment.

“The standing joke in the office is Barack’s learning to speak without a teleprompter, I’m learning to speak with one,” Biden quipped Tuesday at a Jewish American heritage event, managing to be self-effacing while coming close to slighting his boss in the course of a single sentence.

Douglas Brinkley, a presidential historian at Rice University who interviewed Biden for a recent feature in Rolling Stone magazine, said Biden’s become “the Chris Christie of the Democratic Party,” a reference to New Jersey’s shoot-from-the-hip Republican governor.

“Biden’s kind of a joke to the right,” Brinkley said, “but in core Democratic circles, they feel that somehow this longtime Washington politician has packaged himself as the straight talker who’s not hostage to Washington.”

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The standing joke in the office is Barack’s learning to speak without a teleprompter,

pretty brutal. so all our D trolls are happy as punch to have a celebrity prezy that needs his script…can’t even memorize his lines. So what is the performance art? It is not acting on the stage, they memorize reams of lines or songs plus movements and the character arc, etc.

Douglas Brinkley, a presidential historian at Rice University who interviewed Biden for a recent feature in Rolling Stone magazine, said Biden’s become “the Chris Christie of the Democratic Party,” a reference to New Jersey’s shoot-from-the-hip Republican governor.

There is a difference between ‘shoot from the hip’ and ‘shoot into your own foot’ and Brinkley knows it. But like other Democrats, Douglas isn’t going to say anything either until 2017 or until it looks like Biden’s actually going to run for president, if Hillary’s still viable after the Benghazi dust clears. If the latter happens they’ll start destroying him after the 2014 midterms.

“The standing joke in the office is Barack’s learning to speak without a teleprompter, I’m learning to speak with one,” Biden quipped Tuesday at a Jewish American heritage event, managing to be self-effacing while coming close to slighting his boss in the course of a single sentence.